Timel

From Syllabus Design to Curriculum Development

“Main stream teaching method in British language” (Richards, 2001, p.36).

Situational Language Teaching

Practical command of English rather than academic mastery of the language.

English - Language of International Communication

Based on principles of vocabulary and grammatical control

Appeared Beginners' Courses in English

EVOLUTION

Grammatical Syllabus based on principles of gradation.

Selection and Gradation

Grammar Syllabus - Conventional Approach

Appeared 1St Syllabus

1950s

1950s

1940

1930

1920

TIMELINE-1

From Syllabus Design to Curriculum Development

"...Curriculum is a far broader concept" (Rodgers, 1989, 26).

Curriculum approach in Language Teaching

Language teaching moved from “grammar as the core component of language abilities to...

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

"Different types of students have different types of needs and...

English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

EVOLUTION

Missing important element in the language revolution during 1960s.

Changing needs for foreign languages in Europe

"Language learning is overlearning: anything less is of no use." (Bloomfield, 1942, 12).

Audiolingual Method

1980s

1970s

1970s

1970s

1960s

TIMELINE-2

The processes involved in developing or renewing a program focus on needs analysis, situational analysis, planning learning outcomes. course organization, selecting and preparing materials. These elements are seen as a network of interacting systems (Richards, 2001, 53). Therefore, if one of the components of the system changed , the rest of them will be affected.

Curriculum development

Seen as a system

Framework for developing language teaching programs for adults:

"Unit-credit system"

Proposed by Council of Europe

• Educational system (syllabus, curriculum, material) is broken down into a number of quantum units of work.
• Each unit with its definition of terminal behavior.
• Each unit accompained by a system of credit ratings.

English for Specific Purposes

The need to teach ESP began since the 1950s, increased in the 1960s and was consolidated in the 1970s.

Approaches to gradation (Richards, 2001, p.25)

• The need to prepare non-English students for study at American and British universities.
• The need to prepare materials to teach students who need English for use in employment as doctors, nurses, engineers and scientist.
• or for business purposes.
• or to teach immigrants to deal with job situations.

English for Specific Purposes

The concern to make language courses more relevant to learners' needs is the origin of the Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) movement and The ESP approach to language teaching.

Need Analysis in ESP

According to Munby (1978) there are two dimensions of need analysis in ESP courses design:

The content of ESP courses has several levels of restrictions (Strevens, 1977): -Restriction: only the basic skills required by learners’ purposes should be included. -Selection: only vocabulary, patterns of grammar, functions of language, required by learners’ purposes should be included. -Themes and topics and Communicative needs, only those required by learners’ purposes should be included.

• The procedures to establish the target-level communicative competence of learner.
• The procedures to transform all the information gathered into ESP syllabus.

This methodology was also used in Australia.

Applied British Linguistis developed a methodology based on the oral approach. Characteristics:

Situational Language Teaching

• Structural syllabus with graded vocabulary levels.
• Stuctures linked to the context.
• The PPP method.

Due to the increase in the demand for specialized language programs, linguists began to use needs analysis procedures in language teaching. By 1980s, in many parts of the world a "needs-based philosophy" arose in langauge teaching specially in ESP program design.

"Needs-based philosophy"

Introduced by ESP courses since the 1970s

• One of the basic assumptions of curriculum development is that an educactional program should consider an analysis of learners' needs for its design.

Everyone was “going communicative.”

CLT arose as a replacement for the structural-situational and audiolingual methods.

The need arises to design a syllabus to teach communicative competence. The late 1970s and 1980s, there were a variety of proposals for communicative or functional syllabuses, considering a lot of components “to ensure that learners acquire the ability to communicate in a more appropriate and efficient way” (Yalden,1987, 85-87, quoted by Richards, 2001, p.50).

Check the componentes by clicking here

Teaching techniques as repetion of dialogues and pattern practice, followed by exercises to transfer those patterns to new situations. Assumptions:

Audiolingualism

Assumptions (Rivers, 1964)

• Reinforcement to strengthen habits.
• Giving right response instead making mistakes to form foreign language habits.
• "Language is behavior and behavior can be learned only by inducing the student to behaver"

Reevaluation in teaching language policy in many countries in Europe, reconsidering aspects like:

Response to this concern

The extent to which teaching methods addressed learners' needs

• Which foreign languages should be taught in the school system.
• At what year languages should be introduced into the curriculum.
• With what intensity.